Chesapeake Bay News

Many of us look forward to celebrations and gift-giving during the holiday season, but these festivities can be tough on the environment as households use more energy and throw out extra trash. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans send about one million additional tons of garbage to the landfill. Give a gift to the Chesapeake Bay this year with our guide to reducing the impact of your holiday gift exchange.

Image courtesy Kurt Repanshek/Flickr

1. Give experiences. Research has shown that spending money on events – not material purchases – creates lasting memories and provides the most happiness. Give the gift of experiences this year with gifts like concert tickets, cooking classes, museum memberships or national park passes. You could also plan a trip for someone special to one of the many parks and public access sites across the Bay region.

2. Edible gifts. Homemade treats give your gift a personal touch, and by packaging them in a reusable container, you can help reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill. Bake a batch of your favorite cookies, pack a basket full of snacks or fill a mason jar with the dry ingredients needed to make muffins, soups, or hot cocoa. Monica from The Yummy Life shares her recipe for double chocolate hot cocoa mix, complete with printable labels to decorate the jars. For more ideas, check out this list from The Kitchn of 40 homemade edible gifts, from salted pistachio brittle to fruit-infused vinegars.

Image courtesy Anne H. Putnam/Flickr

3. Handmade items. Crafting handmade items from recycled materials can give new life to things you might otherwise throw out. Try using an old teacup as the base for a decorative candle with these instructions from Little House Living, or turn an old sweater into a cozy pillow cover with these instructions from Pop Sugar. Simple crafts like these salt dough ornaments from The Artful Parent are perfect for young kids to make for family and friends.

4. Upcycled materials. If crafting isn’t your specialty, find a store that repurposes recycled materials to make their products. Store such as UncommonGoods sell a variety of “upcycled” merchandise, ranging from a wallet made from an old fire hose to cufflinks made from railroad nails. For kids’ toys, many companies like Green Toys use recycled plastic from milk jugs to make their products.

5. Waste-reducing gadgets. Look for devices that help reduce waste of all kinds – from wasted energy to household trash – for gifts that can help save money and the environment. For the tech-lover, try gadgets like “smart” light switches or learning thermostats that adjust to your schedule to reduce the energy you use. To reduce the amount of waste that goes into the trash bin, consider gifts like reusable lunch bags, grocery bags, water bottles, or coffee thermoses.

Image courtesy plasticbat/Flickr

6. Creative gift wrapping. Wrapping paper is often used once and thrown away, and much of the shiny, metallic paper is not recyclable. By packaging gifts in creative coverings like colorful shopping bags, old newspapers or decorative cloth instead of paper, you can reduce the amount of wrapping paper that goes in the garbage. With reusable tins or baskets, you can even eliminate the need to wrap presents at all! As a finishing touch, decorate gifts with reusable cloth ribbon or even try making your own bows from recycled paper instead of using plastic ribbon.

7. Rechargeable batteries. According to the EPA, nearly 40% of battery sales occur during the holidays. But depleted batteries can be difficult to dispose of and harmful to the environment. If you’re giving a device that uses batteries, consider including rechargeable batteries and a charger with your gift to help reduce waste and prevent harmful chemicals from entering the environment.

What Bay-friendly gifts are you giving this year? Let us know in the comments!

Note: Any references to commercial entities, products or services included in this post are provided solely for informational purposes and do not constitute an endorsement by the Chesapeake Bay Program or the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

About Stephanie Smith - Stephanie is the Online Communications Manager at the Chesapeake Bay Program. A native of the Midwest, she received her Bachelor’s in Professional Writing from Purdue University and Master of Science degree from the University of Michigan. Stephanie’s lifelong love of nature motivates her to explore solutions to complex environmental problems and teach others what they can do to help.

Increasing air temperatures have led to warming waters in the majority of streams in the Chesapeake Bay region, according to research from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published in Climatic Change.

Image courtesy Alice Crain/Flickr

Analyzing fifty-one years of records, scientists found an overall increase of 1.98 degrees Fahrenheit in air temperature and 2.52 degrees in water temperature from 1960 to 2010. The study evaluated measurements from 85 air temperature sites and 129 stream temperature sites of varying size, depth, and land covers.

"Although this may not seem like much, even small increases in water temperatures can have an effect on water quality, affecting the animals that rely on the bay's streams, as well as the estuary itself," said Karen Rice, lead author of the study.

Warming streams can lead to higher nutrient concentrations and decreased dissolved oxygen, resulting in “dead zones” where underwater life is unable to survive. Increased water temperatures may also cause native plants and animals, such as bay grasses and brook trout, to move to different areas as waters no longer fit their habitat needs.

Rising air and water temperatures are just some of the climate change effects that are expected to impact local waters. Results of the study are expected to help inform adaptation strategies to increase climate resiliency across the region.

The article, “Rising air and stream-water temperatures in Chesapeake Bay region, USA,” is available for purchase online.

For many of the people living upstream of the Chesapeake Bay, daily life doesn’t involve crab pots or oyster dredges. A group of such Bay novices — including one member who had never been on a boat — assembled in Crisfield, Md., this fall to take a ferry to Smith Island, one of the last two inhabited islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Actually a small cluster of low-lying stretches of land, Smith Island and its Virginia neighbor Tangier Island carry a rich cultural history dating back to the 1600s. Over the years, they have been subjected to the extreme weather conditions in the open Chesapeake Bay and forces of sea level rise and land subsidence that have already claimed surrounding islands. The trip, organized by the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Forestry Workgroup, gave the foresters the chance to experience the unique life of a Chesapeake waterman.

A group of foresters organized by the Chesapeake Bay Program's Forestry Workgroup looks toward Rhodes Point, one of three communities on Smith Island, Md., while listening to environmental educator Norah Carlos of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on Oct. 27, 2014. The annual trip helps foresters from the six-state Bay watershed connect with Chesapeake Bay heritage and restoration goals.

“These participants are engaged in work throughout the watershed that directly benefits the quality of the Bay, but often they have very little experience on the Bay itself,” said Craig Highfield of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the Forests for the Bay initiative, who has facilitated the excursion for the past two years. “This trip is a way to connect their work with a community that relies so intimately with a healthy Bay.”

“I think this group was able to draw similarities between the rural communities they work with — who rely on the natural resources on the land — with this rural community that relies on the natural resources of the Bay,” said Highfield.

Donning fish scales on her cheeks, Norah Carlos of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation demonstrates the first step of the "kiss and twist" method of ripping a menhaden in half for use as bait for a crab pot during an educational program on the waters of Smith Island, Md.

A colony of brown pelicans roosts on an uninhabited portion of Smith Island, which is used as a nesting site.

From right, Phill Rodbell of the U.S. Forest Service, Adam Miller of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Phil DeSenze of the U.S. Forest Service sort blue crabs caught with crab pots on the waters near Smith Island, Md., during a demonstration on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s boat.

Wes Bradshaw, a Smith Island native and environmental educator for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, captains the Foundation’s boat while Mike Huneke of the U.S. Forest Service tosses back a blue crab in Smith Island, Md. The group of foresters learned how to tell which male and female crabs were legal to harvest.

After learning some of the history of the oyster industry on Smith Island from native waterman Wes Bradshaw, foresters sort through a muddy pile of oysters and oyster shells dredged from the water.

From right, Justin Arsenault and Ryan Galligan of the Maryland Forest Service and Harvey Darden and Gary Heiser of the Virginia Dept. of Forestry use canoes to get a close look at a salt marsh on Smith Island.

From left, Jennifer McGarvey of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Phill Rodbell of U.S. Forest Service, Payton Brown of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Tuana Phillips of the Chesapeake Research Consortium, Lou Etgen of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and Philip McKnight of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation hike through an unpopulated portion of Smith Island.

Lyle Almond of University of Maryland Extension explores a formerly inhabited portion of Smith Island, Md., that still exhibits nonnative garden species like English ivy. Land subsidence has led to homes being removed from portions of Smith Island that are being lost to the water.

Lou Etgen, left, of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and William Bow of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources update a list of species spotted by the group during their time on Smith Island. The list showed over 100 species by the end of the two-and-a-half-day trip.

Fish and invertebrates caught by a crab scraper and oyster dredge swim in a jar of water onboard the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's boat, to be kept in the Foundation’s aquarium at their center on Smith Island.

Payton Brown of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay hands a crab pot to Adam Miller of Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources while unloading the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's boat.

The sun rises behind a boat docked in the town of Tylerton, Md., on Smith Island on Oct. 28, 2014. Three small towns comprise a population of fewer than 400 people on the island.

A playground at Smith Island’s school in Ewell, Md., rests empty during school hours on Oct. 28, 2014. The island's population has declined steadily, with the school now serving just 11 students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Robin Bradshaw, right, chats with Tina Corbin at the Smith Island Crabmeat Co-op in Tylerton, Md., on Oct. 29, 2014. The two women and a third are the only crab pickers remaining with the co-op, which is in its 19th season and began with 15 people and 3-4 helpers, according to Bradshaw. She says the rest have either died or moved away.

A barrel of steamed blue crabs awaits consumption on the dock in Tylerton, Md., after being harvested on the last night of the foresters’ educational trip to Smith Island on Oct. 28, 2014.

McKnight, left, and Carlos serve Smith Island cakes to the group at Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Smith Island environmental education center in Tylerton, Md. The Smith Island cake, made with multiple thin layers of cake and frosting was named the state dessert of Maryland in 2008.

Ryan Galligan of the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources looks out toward a crab boat as the group of foresters leaves Smith Island and returns to Crisfield, Md., on Oct. 28, 2014.

About Will Parson - Will is the Multimedia Specialist for the Chesapeake Bay Program. A native of Bakersfield, California, he acquired an interest in photojournalism while studying ecology and evolution at University of California, San Diego. He pursued stories about water and culture as a graduate student at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, and as an intern at several newspapers in New England before landing in Maryland.

The Chesapeake Executive Council, established in 1983, is responsible for guiding the Chesapeake Bay Program’s policy agenda and setting conservation and restoration goals. Members include the governors of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission Chair and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator.

“I am humbled that my colleagues on the Chesapeake Executive Council have selected me to lead our collective efforts at this critical time in the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Governor McAuliffe. “Not only are we engaged in the implementation of the recently signed Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, but we are continuing the difficult work of meeting our water quality goals under the framework of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load. The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure and an enormous economic asset for Virginia and our neighboring states. I look forward to working with my counterparts in this region to restore and protect the Bay for generations to come.”

Governor McAuliffe succeeds Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who became chair in December 2013. Under the leadership of Governor O’Malley, the Executive Council adopted the landmark Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. He also served two consecutive terms as the Executive Council Chair in 2007 and 2008 and was instrumental in developing two-year milestones that focus on short-term, achievable goals.

"The Bay has been at the top of my agenda during my two terms as Governor and I have been honored to have served as chair three times during my tenure,” said Governor O’Malley. “I know Governor McAuliffe will provide the leadership necessary to meet our collective goals, and I wish him along with the other members of the Council well.”